Helping children learn, grow and overcome adversity

Editor's note: The Giving Spirit has been an annual feature in The Record during the holiday season for almost two decades.

Editor's note: The Giving Spirit has been an annual feature in The Record during the holiday season for almost two decades.

The stories focus on local nonprofit groups and other agencies that help those in need in our community. Over the years, the series has taken on several forms.

This year, we're doing something different. We asked nonprofit leaders to tell the story of their agency's work in their own words.

Contact: (209) 468-9494 or (209) 468-9492 or onetlcschool@yahoo.com

History: one.TLC School has been helping children from homeless families find a quality education for more than two decades. Stockton's one.TLC, the Transitional Learning Center for Homeless Children, opened in 1992 and is operated by the San Joaquin Office of Education in collaboration with Stockton Unified School District and the one.TLC Foundation.

It is located on a Stockton Unified campus at 22 S. Van Buren St., near the Stockton Family Shelter. Since its inception, the school has enrolled and educated more than 7,500 homeless children and helped them transition back into the public education system.

Daily student enrollment at TLC ranges from 10 to 60, with students moving in and out of the school all of the time. TLC also provide services to more than 100 homeless students who are not enrolled but need assistance, referrals, clothing or school supplies.

Mission: The goal of one.TLC is to provide a safe, positive, nurturing educational environment that meets the basic needs of the students, including breakfast, lunch, nutritional programs, clothing (new shoes, underwear, socks, uniforms), school supplies, personal toiletries, books, door-to-door transportation and family services.

The school provides a strong academic program of standards based education with individualized assessment and instruction and a teacher-student ratio of 1:5.

Students achieve one to two years of documented growth in reading skills in 60 to 90 days. The school also provides medical, dental, and vision referrals. Mentors and counselors are available to offer valuable assistance to the students.

Most importantly, the school prepares and follows up on the students for transition back to neighborhood schools when the family is in stable housing. As part of the follow-up, the school also offers assistance for parents to obtain birth certificates and school records.

"The dedicated teachers, staff and volunteers are committed to working with at-risk students and find it a very rewarding experience," said director Sara Garfield. "They all feel the children are an inspiration and have been our greatest teachers. The students come to school so eager to learn and love, despite the numerous obstacles they face."

Head teacher Gail Jones loves having the children experience the "aha moment" when they learn a new concept. Primary grade teachers Lisa Rie and Raquel Olpin strive to provide the children with the most positive experience they can have and love teaching young children.

Carol Cohen, a resource specialist, expresses the feelings of the entire staff: "Each day presents new challenges to motivate students to learn, and it is an incredible joy when a student learns to read and discovers how empowering knowledge and words can be. The students teach us so much about ourselves and challenge us to be a better people and teachers."